Latest news with #upgrades
CTV News
a day ago
- General
- CTV News
Westboro Beach reopens with upgrades
Ottawa Watch Westboro Beach has reopened to the public after multi-million-dollar upgrades and renovations. CTV's Josh Marano reports.
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Halifax Fire communication tools getting improvements
8 minutes ago News Duration 1:42 Researchers are working with Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency to bring upgrades to their communications equipment. Jenna Banfield as the story.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Deteriorated' south Essex playground to be transformed with £50k upgrades
WORK is underway to carry out £50,000 worth of upgrades to decades old playground equipment in an effort to create a 'more modern, inclusive and engaging space' for youngsters. The playground at Ashingdon Memorial Park, Rochford, is currently undergoing an extensive facelift that is set to last several weeks and transform the dated equipment that is currently in place. As part of Rochford Council's five-year 'PlaySpace Improvement Plan', the works have been welcomed by councillors as a much-overdue upgrade for the area's younger residents. We're now on WhatsApp! Join our new channel at to get all the latest breaking news and exclusive stories delivered straight to your phone. A spokesperson for Rochford Council, said: 'The play area at Ashingdon Memorial Park is currently undergoing a significant upgrade. 'The play area will be temporarily closed while the works are carried out, with the closure expected to last up to three weeks. Underway - Works are ongoing at Ashingdon Memorial Park (Image: Ashingdon Parish Council) 'The project involves the installation of £50,000 worth of new play equipment, aimed at creating a more modern, inclusive and engaging space for children and families in the community. 'We appreciate residents patience during this time and look forward to unveiling the improved play area soon.' Last October, Rochford Council announced it was set to release funding to purchase new equipment for parks across the district. Pleased - Roger Constable has welcomed the improvement works (Image: Rochford Council) According to a report filed ahead of October's announcement, the play areas at Ashingdon Playing Fields are in a 'deteriorated' state, with equipment more than 20 years old and at the 'end of its life expectancy'. Over the next five years the council plans to invest £1.26million in the huge project to replace equipment and improve facilities. Photos of the ongoing works at Ashingdon Memorial Park's playground show a digger in place with much of the rubber surfacing already ripped up. The works have been welcomed by Conservative councillor Roger Constable who, following the council's recent leadership changes, has taken on the chairmanship of the Environment and Climate Change Committee. 'I'm just pleased to see that the play equipment is being replaced,' said Mr Constable. 'The area is going to have a lot of new equipment and new flooring and it's all for our young people who need the space to play.'
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘We faked our honeymoon for a free hotel room upgrade'
Gemma Davies*, 33 and from Manchester, caught the honeymoon upgrade bug on a trip to Vietnam in 2024. Davies had been sent an advance questionnaire from a cruise she had booked with her girlfriend in Hạ Long Bay, a Unesco World Heritage Site famed for its limestone islands and emerald waters. Davies had noticed Tripadvisor reviewers who were on their honeymoon had been given generous upgrades on the two-night riverboat cruise. 'The questionnaire asked me if we were celebrating anything and I thought: why not say we're on honeymoon too? Although to be honest we have zero intention of getting married!' When the couple arrived, their cabin had been upgraded and their bed was adorned with towels folded into swan shapes and scattered rose petals. 'That was lovely,' Davies recalls. The trouble came when the pair arrived for their seating at dinner and found staff had flanked their table with a 'ginormous' illuminated heart and a banner reading 'happy honeymoon'. 'Everyone started cheering and clapping, which I found hilarious,' Davies recalls. 'My girlfriend, who is an introvert, said: 'Oh my God, what have you done?'' Despite the 'challenge' of spending two days posing as honeymooners, Davies reprised the freebie-hunting tactic at two further hotels in Vietnam, where the couple enjoyed room upgrades, free cakes and champagne and more towel swans and petals – and left glowing reviews after their stays. 'I don't see it as taking the p--- at all,' Davies argues. 'It's more a way of amplifying your experience as a hotel guest.' Advice pieces on how to blag perks such as hotel and flight upgrades have been a staple of travel magazines since the 1990s. What's new these days is a subculture of unabashed social media 'travel hacks'. When, on Apr 20, TikTokker @ wrote the post: 'Unethical travel hack: fake a honeymoon at check-in!', superimposed on a picture of the sea-view balcony of his upgraded suite in Greece, it received half a million views and tens of thousands of likes. @ Comment your unethical travel hacks #traveltok #travelhacks #greece ♬ Disappear - Maniak-B But not everyone celebrated Rod's 'win'. Italian hotel receptionist Leila Al Azawi responded: 'If you are on a REAL honeymoon and don't get special attention you can say thank you to all these liars who try every other day!', while Greek hotelier Panos weighed in: 'As a hotel worker, we know your tricks; don't be so sure!'. The trend comes alongside a sharp rise in 'friendly fraud', a tactic whereby a consumer makes an online shopping purchase with their own credit card, including for services such as hotels, and then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank after receiving the purchased goods or services. Twenty-something Londoners Ricky Liu and his partner Tom deployed the honeymoon upgrade hack in December, also on an Asian cruise. On the first night of their stay in an upgraded cabin, a waitress arrived at Ricky and Tom's dinner table with rainbow cocktails as other staff members waved their lit camera torches and Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You blasted out over the ship's speakers. Ricky – who admits he 'felt the full weight of guilt' for lying – says there was another couple at dinner who were genuinely on their honeymoon and were cheering them on. 'We were asked about our wedding rings and we said they had gone for a fitting,' Liu admits. A video of the couple's romantic moment has received 3.8 million likes. @ ♬ original sound - Ricky Liu Katrina Rohman is a marketing manager for hotel group Future Inns, which has properties in Bristol, Cardiff and Plymouth. She says the family-owned UK hotel group has 'definitely seen a rise' in guests mentioning birthdays, anniversaries, or honeymoons at the time of booking in the hope of receiving an upgrade or a complimentary treat. 'Most requests are fairly tactful and say something along the lines of: 'We are celebrating our anniversary during this stay and would love anything you might be able to offer to make it extra special',' she says. Some guests, however, have more cheek: 'They will outright ask for a suite upgrade, a bottle of champagne, or free dinners, even when they've booked a standard room.' Vicky Saynor, owner of Bethnal & Bec, says the improbable numbers of supposed event celebrants booking her luxury self-catering properties led the property owner to institute a formal policy of paid-for birthday/just married/ anniversary/babymoon upgrades in 2019. 'We simply couldn't afford to do something special for everybody who asked for it,' she said, adding: 'refusal often caused offence'. The property's £20 event add-on offering includes brownies, eco balloons and a banner, with organic prosecco or champagne available for an additional supplement. 'Though when we know guests personally or are aware they are celebrating and don't ask for something for free we pop a small welcome gift into the room for them,' Saynor adds. Restaurateurs too report a rise in the 'fake cake' brigade: customers pretending it is their birthday to blag free cakes and desserts. Emma Reid, 58, and based in Cardiff, is one such bold diner. 'I regularly cite a birthday or anniversary to get free drinks and dessert at restaurants,' she says. 'My best ever blag was a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for my '40th' when I was 42.' Reid says her husband 'dies of embarrassment' at her blagging tactics, which also extend to hotel stays. 'I once cried at a hotel reception about a room we were given and they gave us the honeymoon suite,' Reid says. 'I'm an expert at getting upgrades to rooms with balconies.' Some hoteliers are now asking for proof of birthday dates and wedding certificates before they wheel out the free fizz, with reports that reception staff at sunshine resorts in the States are performing 'ring checks' (checking wedding bands for signs of long wear and tan lines). Rohman thinks hoteliers 'develop a bit of a sixth sense' for spotting when guests are on the take. Dr Charlotte Russell, a clinical psychologist and founder of The Travel Psychologist, understands why travel blagging tactics are on the rise. Russell says that the cost of living, soaring hotel rates and unrealistic expectations of the hotel-going experience that are broadcast via social media create a 'perfect storm' to encourage guests to go after freebies. As with any dishonest or morally questionable behaviour, she says, there are ways that guests justify this blagging to themselves: 'By reconstruing their conduct ('it's not that bad'); minimising the negative consequences ('it didn't hurt anyone'); or blaming the recipients ('they make the prices too high anyway').' Gemma Davies has no regrets and says that she will 'definitely' try the travel hack again, albeit judiciously: 'It would be tricky on a week-long all-inclusive where we would bump into people again and again and would maybe need to fake a proposal story,' she laughs. Expert upgrade blagger Reid is sometimes faced with a hotel staff member who's seen it all. 'I sometimes have to accept defeat after exhausting my repertoire!' she admits. 'Would I do this again? Absolutely, yes,' Liu concludes.
